THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. (Applause.) Thank you
all for coming. It is -- I'm so glad to be back in Nebraska.
(Applause.) Thanks for coming by to say hello. It's an honor to be
here. Brad, I want to thank you very much for opening up your fine
facility to the entourage that travels with me and all these fine
folks. I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit of Airlite Plastics. I
want to thank all the good, hardworking folks that work here to make
this company a going concern. I appreciate your hospitality.
(Applause.) And I want to congratulate you on your new building. It's
a beautiful facility.

I'm here to talk about some important matters facing this country.
But before I do, I want to remind you about something in this
administration: one half of the ticket was born right here in
Nebraska. (Applause.) Our great Vice President, Dick Cheney, was born
in Nebraska. (Applause.) No wonder he's given me such good advice.
(Applause.)

Thanks for coming out. I'm really proud to be introduced by Chuck
Hagel, he's a fine United States senator and a good friend. I
appreciate him. (Applause.) He mentioned the governor. I'm proud to
call Mike Johanns my friend, and I'm glad he's here. (Applause.) And
I appreciate the First Lady of the state of Nebraska joining us here
today, too. It's good to see you all. Thanks for coming. (Applause.)

I also appreciate so very much Ben Nelson for coming, and his wife,
Diane. I'm honored you all are here. I'm pleased to have you here.
Thanks for coming. (Applause.)

You've done a pretty good job about selecting congressmen -- well,
better than a pretty good job, you've done a great job here in
Nebraska. I'm proud that Doug Bereuter is here, and Lee Terry, and Tom
Osborne. (Applause.) All of them fine members, and all of them good
to work with. And you know what else -- you let a man come across the
border today to come here. And that would be Congressman Steve King,
from right across the way in Iowa. (Applause.)

I'm honored the Lieutenant Governor is here. I'm honored the
Secretary of State is here. I'm honored the Attorney General is here.
I'm honored the State Treasurer is here. I'm honored the State Auditor
is here. And I'm honored you all are here, too. Thanks for coming.
(Applause.)

Before we talk about the issue facing this country and our
responsibilities and how we're going to assume those responsibilities,
I do want to talk about a lady I met at the airport today -- a woman
named Anne Carroll. (Applause.) Somebody has heard of her. Well,
somebody's heard of her. That's good. (Laughter.)

You're probably wondering why I would even mention Anne Carroll.
Well, let me tell you why. You see, there's a lot of talk across our
country and around the world about America's muscle. They talk about
our military might, they talk about our strength, but they overlook the
true strength of the country. The true strength of the country is the
heart and soul of the individuals in this country.

Anne Carroll volunteers her time. She's very actively involved in
the Habitat for Humanity, and the International Meals on Wheels. She's
involved with helping make somebody else's life better. You know, the
great strength of America happens when a neighbor loves a neighbor in
need.

The great strength of this country is the hearts and souls of the
American people. Don't ever let them tell you the great strength is
the military strength. No, that's good. That helps. (Laughter.) But
we're a loving nation, and a compassionate nation, and a decent
nation. (Applause.)

And I want to thank Anne Carroll, and I want to thank all of you
all who work hard to help a neighbor in need. And keep doing it. The
best way to have a compassionate tomorrow for all our citizens is to
put your arm around somebody who hurts and say, I love you. What can I
do to help? (Applause.)

Now we've been tested. This nation has been tested. As Chuck
reminded you, I was here on that fateful day. The enemy hit us. They
thought we were going to fold our tent. They thought we were weak.
They thought we were afraid. But what they've seen in the last 20
months is a relentless campaign against global terror, because we love
our freedoms. (Applause.) What they have seen is a nation which
stands -- stands strong when it comes to doing our duty and assuming
our responsibilities to fight terror and to make our people more
secure.

It wasn't all that long ago that we sent our troops into
Afghanistan in order to uphold the doctrine that said if you harbor a
terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists. To uphold that
doctrine that says if you feed or hide a terrorist, we will hold you to
account, just like we're going to hold the terrorists to account. And
the Taliban found out what we meant. (Applause.)

As a result of the skill and bravery of the United States and our
coalition friends and allies, we have freed the people of Afghanistan
from the clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in the history of
mankind. And now, as a result of our decisions and actions, many young
girls go to school for the first time in Afghanistan. (Applause.)

And we're still on the hunt. There's still al Qaeda operatives
moving around. And we're going to stay on the hunt until we bring them
to justice. We have a duty in this country to defend our freedoms. We
have a responsibility to future generations of America to uphold our
responsibility to make this country secure. And we assume those
duties, and we accept that responsibility.

And so today, as I speak, there are Special Forces teams on the
hunt, on the prowl. We're running down leads, we're cutting off their
money, we're working with a vast coalition of nations which love
freedom. And we'll stay on the hunt until we have totally dismantled
the al Qaeda network, to make this world more free. (Applause.)

And part of the war on terror was dealing with the dictator in
Iraq. Part of making this country more secure and the world more
peaceful was going into Iraq and removing a dictator who had defied
resolution after resolution after resolution from the international
community; a dictator with known terrorist connections; a dictator who
had weapons of mass destruction. No, we sent in some of the bravest of
the brave. (Applause.) And as a result -- and as a result of their
courage and sacrifice, America is more secure, the neighborhood is more
peaceful, the world is more peaceful, and the Iraqi people are free.
(Applause.)

I want to thank very much the folks from Offutt Air Force Base who
went over to the theater -- the 55th, Fighting 55th went. About 1,500
of them participated in making sure the al Faw Peninsula was secure,
helped hunt down enemy scud missiles, helped the recovery of seven POWs
in northern Iraq. I'm proud to call them fellow Americans. For those
of you have got a loved one wearing this nation's uniform, you thank
them and you tell them the Commander in Chief is incredibly proud.
(Applause.)

We haven't been at this long. It wasn't all that long ago that I
gave Secretary Rumsfeld the orders to move in. It was less than two
months ago that our military, along with others, started to liberate
Iraq. But we're making progress toward achieving our objective. Our
objective is to make the world more peaceful. And the best way to make
the world more peaceful is to promote freedom. In America, we believe
a free society is a society which is less likely to create terror
activities. A free society is one in which people are more likely to
channel their God-given talents in a constructive and positive way.

No, we're in Iraq until Iraq is free, completely free. (Applause.)
We will help rebuild that country. People with food on the table, and
with their lights on in their house, and people that can move around
freely without fear of a gang attacking them, these are people that are
more likely to develop a society which is a free society. So first
things first. And it doesn't matter how long it takes. The United
States will put the conditions right, along with our allies, create the
conditions necessary for Iraq to be run by the Iraqis. An Iraq of, for
and by the Iraqi people, and then we'll come home. (Applause.)

There is no doubt in my mind, as a result of the actions that this
country has taken to defend ourselves, the world is a more peaceful
place. And there is no doubt in my mind, as a result of the actions
this nation has taken to defend ourselves, freedom has a better chance
to take hold all across the world. I'm proud of this country, I'm
proud of the decisions and actions we have taken, and I'm proud of the
values we hold dear to our hearts. (Applause.)

And while we continue to work on the homeland security, we've got
to remember that part of a secure nation is one in which people have
job security, in which people can find a job if they're looking for
work. And that's -- I'm concerned about that. That interest --
unemployment rate hit 6 percent the other day. And that ought to be a
wake-up call to members of the United States Congress, that we've got
an issue here in this country and we need policies that will get people
back to work. (Applause.)

I'm optimistic about our future, because, like you, I have seen
what we have overcome. Let me review the history right quick. The
stock market started to decline in March of 2000. And since this is
now an ownership society, it affected a lot of people. A lot of people
count on their stocks as part of their retirement package. If you're a
teacher, you care about the stock market. If you're a policeman, you
care about the stock market. If you're an average citizen, it's likely
you care about the stock market, because your pension plans or your
401(k)s are invested.

And so the market started going down in March of 2000. And then we
went into a recession. That's three quarters of negative growth. From
January of 2001, for the three quarters ending, starting January 2001,
we were negative. That meant we were going backwards. Meant the
economy was going down, it meant people were beginning to hurt. And we
started getting our feet underneath us and started making some
progress, then the enemy hit us. They attacked us, and it affected
us. Obviously, took a lot of lives, and we mourn for those lives, and
we mourn for those families who still suffer as a result of that
attack.

But it also affected the psychology of the country. You see, we
thought oceans could protect us forever. And we realized we were
vulnerable under the -- in this new era in which we live. But the
country came back together, we rallied. And then, all of a sudden,
some of our fellow citizens -- we discovered that some of our citizens
forgot what it was like to be a responsible citizen, and they cooked
the books. They were CEOs of corporate America, and they forgot they
have a responsibility to shareholders and employees to tell the truth.
(Applause.) They got a bad case of big-shot-itis. (Laughter.) But
they're now learning that they're going to be held to account if they
don't tell the truth.

So we overcame corporate scandal, and we're still overcoming those
scandals. We've been through a lot, when you think about it. And,
yet, we're growing. The economy is still moving forward. As a matter
of fact, we're one of the best economies amongst the industrialized
world. And that's positive. But we're not growing fast enough. We're
not growing fast enough because too many of our citizens are looking
for work. And so long as somebody's looking for work that wants to
work, it says to me we've got a problem.

And, therefore, I laid out a plan to deal with it. And it starts
-- based on this principle. It says, if you're worried about people
finding work -- in other words, one of the problems we have is we're
such a productive economy, we've got the best workers in the world, by
the way, the productivity rates are way up in America -- (applause) --
but the more productive you are, it means there's better output per
worker, which means you better increase demand if you're trying to
create new jobs. In other words, if one worker can do more work,
you've got to create the need for more work in order to make a job
available for somebody looking for work.

And the best way to do that is to stimulate a demand for good and
services. And the only way to stimulate a demand for good and services
in our economy is to let people keep more of their own money.
(Applause.) And notice, I said, more of their own money. Sometimes in
a Washington debate -- (applause) -- I noticed Senator Hagel
emphasized that, as well. See, he knows what I know -- sometimes in
Washington people forget whose money we're talking about. You hear
them say, well, the government's money. Well, we're going to spend the
government's money here. Or, we'll do this with the government's
money. We're not talking about the government's money. We're talking
about the people's money. It's your money. (Applause.)

And the more of your own money you have, the more likely it is our
economy is going to grow. See, the more money you have in your pocket,
it increases demand for goods and services. And when there's an
increased demand for goods, or increased demand for services, in our
society, in our marketplace, somebody is going to produce the good or a
service. And as somebody produces that additional good or a service,
it means somebody is more likely to find a job. And we're here talking
about one thing: jobs for the American people. That's what we're
here talking about. (Applause.)

So here is what I have proposed. Here's what I've proposed. First
of all, you've got to recognize we did cut the taxes on everybody who
paid taxes in 2001. And that made sense. We reduced the penalty in
the marriage penalty. We increased the child credit. But the problem
was, is that in 2001, it seemed okay to phase those tax relief, those
tax cuts in over a three to five to seven-year period. Well, we know
you need that tax relief right now. If you're a person looking for a
job, you're not interested in tax relief in seven years. If you're out
there looking for work, you want it today.

And so I submitted to the United States Congress, strongly
supported by the people here, that let's just make it happen now.
Let's not wait. Let's get tax relief to the American people as quickly
as possible. (Applause.) And so that's what we've done. That's part
of the plan. A significant part of the plan is to accelerate the tax
relief in place for everybody who pays taxes.

You'll hear all kinds of rhetoric out of Washington -- they'll say
this plan only benefits the rich; I can't be for this, because only the
rich people benefit. Well, it's interesting they would say that. I
just met with a bunch of your fellow citizens who disagree with that
concept. I had the honor of having a roundtable discussion prior to
coming into this hall, and I met with some good, hardworking folks from
this part of the world.

The Madrigals are with us today. (Applause.) And so is their
extended family. (Laughter.) Kim and Greg. They've got a son, Noah,
and a daughter, Marina. They're hardworking people; they're worried
about their future. This tax relief will provide them $900 in tax
relief a year. That's not $900 for one year, that's $900 for a series
of years. That's $900 this year, next year, next -- all of a sudden,
it gives them $900 to start planning for their future. They get to
decide what to do with their own money. It's their money, they ought
to decide what to do with it.

They're going to talk about making sure that they started a college
savings account for their children. All of a sudden, the idea of
sending their children to college is a little less onerous, because
there's tax relief. They save that money. They said, we both had to
work through college; we never had anything set aside for us -- this is
what Kim says -- so it's important that we provide for our kids so they
don't have to do all the struggling we had to do. That's a fantastic
parent who believes that way. They understand their most important
responsibility is to love their children with all their heart. This
tax relief helps them. (Applause.)

Jenny Theisen's with us. Her husband is a staff sergeant out at
Offutt. They've got children. They want to put money aside for their
kids' saving, they maybe want to do a little remodeling. Now, you see,
when somebody makes the decision to get a little extra money in their
pocket, they decide to remodel, somebody's got to show up to the house
to do the remodeling. Somebody's got to bring the hammer and the saw
over, and the paint. Somebody's got to go buy the paint. And all of a
sudden, you start having a positive effect on the economy when the
Jenny Theisens of this world start making decisions about changing the
nature of her home.

It's not just Jenny. There's going to be thousands of people like
her who make the decision with her own money to remodel their homes.
And all of a sudden, the remodeling industry gets a shot in the arm,
and somebody is more likely to find work. When you leave money in
somebody's pockets, and they decide to spend it, it's going to have a
positive effect all throughout the economy.

I met with Julie and Tom Belt from Council Bluffs. (Applause.)
They've got three young boys. They're going to save $1,375 a year.
That's real money. That's money that's going to go into the pockets of
good, solid, middle-class citizens, who will make decisions with that
money, and it will begin to circulate through our economy. (Applause.)

And I met the Bullers. (Applause.) They're going to use some of
that money to pay their cheering section. (Laughter and applause.)
They're going to save $1,000 a month -- a year, for the out-years.

My point to you is, is that tax relief will have an incredibly
positive effect on the hardworking people of this country. People who
are working hard to get ahead; people who are struggling with the bills
they got today and are worried about their future. Tax relief is good
for American families. Tax relief is important and is needed for our
economy.

And let me tell you what else reducing the individual rates will
do. It will serve as a stimulus for small business. Now, you see,
most small businesses pay tax at the sole proprietorship as a result of
being a sole proprietorship, or what they call a limited liability
corporation or a sub-chapter S. And that means they pay taxes at the
individual income tax rate. So if you're the traditional mom-and-pop
business, you will pay -- it's more likely you'll be paying taxes at
the individual income tax rate. When you hear people talk about -- me
talk about reducing income taxes on the individual, I want you to
remember that it's also cutting taxes on the small businesses of
America.

And let me tell you why that's important. Most new jobs in America
are created by small businesses. And if you're interested in job
creation, you've got to do something about helping the small businesses
of this country. (Applause.) And part of that package is to allow
small businesses to deduct $75,000 a year on equipment purchases, as
opposed to the current limitations of $25,000 a year.

And so today I was down there in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I was
talking to some entrepreneurs and talking to a guy who owned his own
garage. I can't remember how long -- I think he's owned his business
for 20 years. He started off with two people; he's now up to maybe a
couple of -- you know, 20 people. Anyway, he's growing. And he told
me, he said, if I'm allowed to expense more than $25,000, I'm likely to
add on to my garage. And when I add on to my garage, it's going to
mean I need somebody else to work in the garage -- because it can't sit
empty. And then somebody is going to have to come and build the
garage.

What we've got to do in our society is increase the vitality of our
small businesses, and encourage small businesses to invest. When
somebody invests, it means somebody has to provide the product. And
when somebody has to provide a product, somebody is more likely to find
work. The tax relief plan I submitted to the United States Congress
has got one thing in mind: helping people find work. (Applause.)

And the final aspect of the plan I want to talk to you about is the
policy I've submitted to the Congress that will get rid of the double
taxation of dividends. (Applause.) Some people say, well, the double
taxation of dividends isn't going to help anybody, except the rich.
Well, they don't understand the nature of our society, evidently. More
and more and more people now own stocks. More people have got a stake
in the future of the stock market because of retirement plans, for
example.

And, therefore, it doesn't make any sense to penalize companies --
if you're a stock-holding society, it doesn't make any sense to
penalize companies. If you're a stock-holding society, it doesn't make
any sense to penalize companies which distribute cash to the owners.
That's a dividend. If you're an owner of the company, it seems like to
me you would want to maybe get a little something out of it besides the
appreciation of the stock. You'd like to get a dividend.

But we penalize that kind of behavior in America because we not
only tax the company's profits, we then tax the distribution of the
profits to the shareholders. We tax the same dollar twice, and that is
not fair. It's not fair policy. (Applause.)

It is not fair to tax the profits twice of our senior citizens.
Sixty-four thousand seniors in Nebraska rely on dividends to meet their
financial needs. If you're worried about the senior citizen being able
to live a comfortable life upon retirement, then you need to -- join us
in getting rid of the double taxation of dividends. A lot of seniors
count on dividend income in order to survive. And the double taxation
of dividends penalizes those seniors.

The double taxation of dividends will be good corporate reform.
You see, we went through a period of time, as you might remember, where
people said, invest in my company. I've got a good story, but I don't
have any cash flow. But give us a shot. Kind of the pie-in-the-sky
theory of market investing. Go ahead and invest, I've got a good tale
to tell, but no one seems to be buying my product.

The new economy also was tagged with reality by old economics.
That is, if you run out of money, you're not going to be in business.
If a dividend society is one which says in order to justify your story,
in order to justify your existence, you've got to keep up a steady
stream of dividends. You can't say pie-in-the-sky if you've promised
the investor and the shareholder that they're going to get a dividend.
You've got to perform. And so getting rid of the double taxation of
dividends will cause more businesses to pay a dividend. It helps
incent them to pay a dividend. And, therefore, fancy footwork isn't
going to work. The only thing that will work is making sure people
have got a steady stream of dividends.

And, finally, getting rid of dividend -- the double taxation of
dividends will lower the cost of capital, will make it easier for
people to raise money. And remember, when people have money to invest,
it means somebody is more likely to find work. We estimate that
getting rid of the double taxation of dividends will add 400,000 new
jobs by the end of 2004. I want Congress to take this proposition
seriously. It's good for America. (Applause.)

And we're making progress. We're making progress. I want to thank
you for your interest in this issue. I ask you to continue working
with the members of the Nebraska delegation, to let them know your
feelings on this very important issue.

Now, you'll hear people say, well, we can't do this because there's
a deficit -- if I just take a quick second and just tell you my views
on that. I'm concerned about the deficit; you're concerned about the
deficit, I know. But let me remind you why we have a deficit. We have
a deficit because the economy slowed down, is why we have a deficit.
When the economy goes into recession, it means less revenues are coming
into the Treasury. Secondly, we have a deficit because I told the
American people, if we ever put our soldiers in harm's way, we're going
to pay whatever is necessary to win, to protect them, give them the
best. (Applause.) And that's what we did. It's exactly what we did.
(Applause.)

Now there's two ways to deal with that. One, you can raise the
taxes in order to make up the deficit, which doesn't make any sense to
me. It'll hurt the economy. If giving people more of their money
means more jobs, taking away their money means less jobs. Or, you can
do our plan, which is hold the line on spending in Washington, D.C.,
which is being realistic with the people's money. (Applause.)

And I want to thank the members up here that voted for that budget
I submitted that holds discretionary spending to 4 percent. You hold
the line on the expense side, and you increase the revenues coming into
the Treasury by increasing jobs, by increasing economic vitality. Yes,
I'm concerned about the deficit, but I'm more concerned about the
person looking for a job today. And this plan we've got not only will
deal with the deficit in the long-term, but in the short-term says, we
care about the man or a woman looking for a place to work in America.
(Applause.)

I'm confident about our economic outlook; particularly confident
when Congress does the right thing and let's you have more of your own
money. We don't need to be little-bitty in this deal. We need to be
robust to get people back to work. We need -- (applause.) We don't
need to be afraid -- we don't need to be afraid of the politics or
afraid of the rhetoric. We need to be strong in our desire to do what
is right for this economy. And what is right is a robust plan. And
what is right is a strong plan, which will get money in people's
pockets, so you can decide what to do with it. And when you decide to
do positive things with it, somebody's likely to find a job.

No, there's no doubt in my mind that this country can overcome the
obstacles that have been put in our way. There's no doubt in my mind
that when we remain strong and diligent -- and we will -- America will
be more secure. There's no doubt in my mind, as we continue to work
hard for the values we believe, people will realize the beauty of
freedom and the benefits of freedom. And, therefore, the world will be
more peaceful.

There's no doubt in my mind that this economy is going to be
strong, because the entrepreneurial spirit is strong, and the people of
this country are strong. We've got great workers. We've got a great
system. There's no doubt in my mind we'll succeed, because there's no
doubt in my mind we're the greatest nation on the face of the earth
because of the American people. (Applause.)

Thank you for coming. May God bless, and may God bless America.
(Applause.)